Our chief news editor, ek hornbeck, is off this evening but will return tomorrow.
International alarm over euro zone crisis grows
by Noah Barkin and Stefano Bernabei
(Reuters) – International alarm over Europe’s debt crisis reached new heights on Tuesday, with U.S. President Barack Obama pressing the bloc’s big countries to show leadership as talk of a Greek default escalated and markets heaped pressure on Italy.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to quash talk of an imminent Greek default or exit from the euro zone, but confusion over whether she would issue a joint statement on Greece with French President Sarkozy sent markets gyrating up and then down.
Pressure mounts on Murdoch family in hacking pro
by Kate Holton
(Reuters) – Britain’s parliament on Tuesday said it would recall Rupert Murdoch’s son James to answer more questions in its probe into News Corp’s hacking scandal and U.S. shareholders raised the stakes in a legal battle with the company.
The two moves reignited a long-running controversy that has already damaged the British establishment and threatened the media magnate’s once untouchable political influence.
Taliban attack across Kabul, target U.S. Embassy
by Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi
(Reuters) – Taliban fighters fired rockets at the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul on Tuesday and attacked police in three other areas in the biggest assault the insurgent group has mounted on the Afghan capital.
At least 9 people were killed and 23 wounded in the four attacks, and a gun battle around a half-built high-rise building raged on into the evening as NATO and Afghan attack helicopters circled overhead.
Just end it all, Russian oligarch tells eurocrats
by Andrew Callus
(Reuters) – European leaders grappling with the euro zone debt crisis have an unsolvable problem that will lead to economic decline and a loss of manufacturing power to rivals, one of Russia’s most powerful businessmen said on Tuesday.
“If I was a politician in Europe, I would commit suicide,” said Vladimir Potanin, who owns a 30-percent stake in Norilsk Nickel (GMKN.MM), the world’s largest nickel and palladium producer.
Senate panel backs Pentagon budget freeze
by David Alexander
(Reuters) – A Senate panel on Tuesday approved defense spending of about $630 billion for the 2012 fiscal year, freezing the Pentagon’s base budget at $513 billion for a second straight year while seeking nearly $118 billion for U.S. wars abroad.
The $513 billion Pentagon base budget would be $26 billion less than requested by President Barack Obama and nearly $20 billion less than approved by the House of Representatives. It follows a debt reduction deal in August that calls for cutting national security spending by $350 billion over 10 years.
Snapshot: U.S. alarmed about euro zone, Greek default talk grows
(Reuters) – Alarm is growing in the United States at Europe’s inability to solve its debt crisis and talk of a full-on Greek default is on the rise. Following are the key events and developments on Tuesday.
* German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will make a statement on Greece later on Tuesday. “They are going to take action today,” a senior French government source told Reuters. Announcement pushes the euro higher, it then falls as Sarkozy’s office denies any joint statement is planned.
Republicans step up criticism of jobs plan
by Laura MacInnis and Thomas Ferraro
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Wednesday warned Republican lawmakers against delaying action on his jobs plan until the 2012 elections even as they intensified criticism of his $447 billion proposal.
“The next election is 14 months away, and we don’t have the luxury of waiting that long,” Obama told 3,000 people in Ohio, home state of the House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican.
Italy under pressure as debt worries grow
by Giuseppe Fonte
(Reuters) – Italy had to pay record interest to sell its bonds on Tuesday as it raced to calm market fears that it was losing control of a huge public debt and could trigger a crisis that threatened the euro zone.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said a 54 billion euro austerity plan would be approved by parliament on Wednesday and promised to pursue other measures to boost growth. Sources told Reuters the government was also considering sales of property and local utilities to raise funds to cut its debt — now around 120 percent of annual national output.
Number of poor hit record 46 million in 2010
by David Morgan
(Reuters) – The number of Americans living below the poverty line rose to a record 46 million last year, the government said on Tuesday, underscoring the challenges facing President Barack Obama and Congress as they try to tackle high unemployment and a moribund economy.
Diabetes “massive challenge” as cases hit 366 million
by Ben Hirschler
(Reuters) – The number of people living with diabetes has soared to 366 million, and the disease kills one person every seven seconds, posing a “massive challenge” to healthcare systems worldwide, experts said on Tuesday.
The vast majority of those with the disease have Type 2 — the kind linked to poor diet, obesity and lack of exercise — and the problem is spreading as people in the developing world adopt more Western lifestyles.
Jailed Americans to be freed soon: Ahmadinejad
by Parisa Hafezi
(Reuters) – Iran will soon free two Americans jailed for spying, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday, in what he called a humanitarian gesture weeks before he travels to the United Nations in New York.
“I think these two persons will be freed in a couple of days,” the Iranian leader said through an interpreter in an interview broadcast on NBC’s “Today” show. “We do it, for example, in a humanitarian gesture.”
Children may soon be spared airport patdowns: Napolitano
(Reuters) – Children under 12 may soon be spared pat-downs and taking off their shoes as the U.S. begins to implement new airport security screening procedures, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Tuesday.
“We have been piloting also programs to deal with children under the age of 12 with respect to not only taking off their shoes but also pat-down procedures,” Napolitano told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Tuesday. “And we hope, over the coming weeks and months to be able to begin rolling that out.”
Three TSA agents arrested over interstate drug ring
(Reuters) – Three Transportation Security Administration employees, a police officer and a state trooper were among 20 people arrested and accused of running an interstate prescription drug ring, officials said on Tuesday.
The ring was accused of shipping the drug oxycodone to New York and Connecticut from Florida and relaying the cash proceeds back to Florida, said Tom Carson, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Connecticut.
Child sex abuse claims mount against Boy Scouts
by Dan Cook and Laura Zuckerman
(Reuters) – Four Oregon men sued the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday over childhood sexual abuse they say they suffered at the hands of a pedophile knowingly appointed as their scoutmaster in the 1970s.
The lawsuits, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland, accuse the national Boy Scouts organization of negligence and fraud in connection with the repeated molestation of the men, then aged 12 to 15, their Portland-based lawyer Kelly Clark said.
Americans turned to public health insurance in 2010
by Alina Selyukh
(Reuters) – More Americans became reliant on public health insurance and lost coverage sponsored by their employers in 2010, the U.S. government said on Tuesday.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s annual report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage showed that more people turned to state and federal programs as employer-based plans became more expensive and as unemployment levels stayed stubbornly high.
CIA reviewing ties with New York police department
(Reuters) – The CIA inspector general is reviewing the spy agency’s ties with the New York Police Department after critics questioned whether the relationship amounted to “domestic spying” that infringed civil liberties.
A U.S. Muslim civil liberties organization last month called for a federal investigation into a report the Central Intelligence Agency was helping New York City police gather information from mosques and minority neighborhoods.
Civilians pour out of besieged pro-Gaddafi town
by Maria Golovnina
(Reuters) – Hundreds of Libyans fled a desert town held by Muammar Gaddafi’s forces on Tuesday, complaining of hardship and intimidation, as fighters backed by the country’s new rulers warned of a full onslaught in the coming days.
Forces of the new ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) that overran Tripoli on August 23 have met unexpectedly stout resistance in five days of fighting for the town of Bani Walid 180 km (110 miles) southeast of the capital.
Turkish PM throws weight behind Arab cause
(Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told Arab states on Tuesday it was time to raise the Palestinian flag at the United Nations and accused Israel of obstructing peace in the Middle East.
Erdogan, addressing Arab foreign ministers in Cairo at the start of a Middle Eastern tour, said backing a bid for recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations later this month was “not an option but an obligation” for Arab states.
Richardson “disappointed” after Cuba mission flops
(Reuters) – Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said on Tuesday he was ending a visit to Cuba after failing to see a jailed American contractor and that he feared the island’s Communist government did not want to improve ties with the United States.
The surprise arrival of the U.S. diplomatic trouble-shooter
in Cuba last week had raised hopes for the possible release of Alan Gross, 62, whose imprisonment by Cuban authorities had put a freeze on relations between Havana and Washington.
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